Devotionals

Christians who live under governments that are hostile to the interests of the church may find it difficult to pray for their rulers. Scripture, however, does not tell us to pray for our leaders according to their godliness. In fact, ...Read More

There are few decisions in life that are more important than one’s selection of mentors, friends, and advisers. Having the right people around them make otherwise average leaders into great ones. Even if we never become leaders ourselves, godly and ...Read More

Our obedience to the Lord does indeed provide a profound witness to the truth of God, but that we can never serve Him perfectly points to a need for a greater testimony to His faithfulness. This witness can only be ...Read More

As we have noted, the proverbs are not guaranteed promises for this life. We cannot, therefore, apply them in a wooden fashion and grow disillusioned when, for example, Proverbs 16:7 goes unfulfilled and our enemies remain firm in their hatred ...Read More

Human freedom and divine sovereignty exist in a complex, mysterious relationship. Though God ordains all of our choices—even choices that end up being thwarted because they do not match the results that He has ordained—we can never blame Him for ...Read More

Seeing the wicked succeed can be discouraging, especially when we are suffering for the sake of righteousness. Yet what we should never do, today’s passage tells us, is envy the wicked and their success. The success of the wicked is ...Read More

Fear of the divine without knowledge of divine truth is superstition, for superstitious people have some kind of “fear” or “anxiety” regarding divine forces. Knowledge of divine truth without fear of the divine is dead orthodoxy, knowledge about God without ...Read More

The author of Hebrews tells us that God’s discipline may seem painful at the moment, but the lasting harvest of righteousness that it creates is well worth all the trouble we must endure (Heb. 12:3–11). Not all of the pain ...Read More

God calls us to keep our word, so we should do whatever we can to set up guardrails to help us fulfill that call. In addition to not making frivolous oaths, we must seek the help of the Lord Himself, ...Read More

Friends and even family may exert great pressure on us to join with them in their sin. They may appeal to our loyalties and try to guilt us into covering up a misdeed that should be reported or beg us ...Read More